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Youth climate justice organization Sunrise PDX will host a bike ride July 31 called “The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly,” a tour of the best and worst of Portland’s bike infrastructure, as part of this summer’s Pedalpalooza. The bike ride will start at Ankeny Rainbow Road Plaza, 2720 SE Ankeny St., at 7 pm. The plaza happens to be a positive example of bike-friendly infrastructure, since it’s a car-free and brightly colored block along the Ankeny Street Neighborhood Greenway.
The tour will then veer into some of our city’s less-impressive bike lanes, such as on nearby car-centric thoroughfares Sandy Boulevard and East Burnside Street.
“When you are in a bike lane and it’s not green, and there are multiple lanes of traffic, and cars are zipping past you, it makes you feel like you’re going to get hit,” says Anna Norman, a Sunrise PDX volunteer, speaking of a death-defying bike ride to the grocery store in Beaverton.
Volunteers with Sunrise PDX have recruited City Councilors Mitch Green and Tiffany Koyama Lane and Metro Councilor Juan Carlos González to join the bike ride. In addition to the elected officials, the group hopes to attract city planners, transportation officials, advocates and community members. Anyone who wants to participate but needs a bike is welcome to register for free wheels to borrow for the event, courtesy of the Community Cycling Center.
“We’d like to get community members and councilors talking,” Norman says, “and one way is to get councilors on the ground to look at the infrastructure.”
GO: “The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly” bike ride starting at Ankeny Rainbow Road Plaza, 2720 SE Ankeny St., shift2bikes.org/calendar/event-22043. 7 pm Thursday, July 31. Free.
